The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) provides a forum for the discussion of activities, programs and problems in intellectual freedom of libraries and librarians; serves as a channel of communications on intellectual freedom matters; promotes a greater opportunity for involvement among the members of the ALA in defense of intellectual freedom; promotes a greater feeling of responsibility in the implementation of ALA policies on intellectual freedom.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Karla Shafer served as director of the Hooper (Nebr.) Public
Library for six and a half years before a controversy
erupted in 2010 over the English classes she taught to immigrants in a
nearby town on her days off. She resigned her position when the work
environment became untenable. Three months later, her unemployment benefits
were canceled, following an appeal from the city.

With money running out and few other options available to
her, Karla turned to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund for assistance. The
Fund gave Karla $5,000 to help pay her overdue bills and legal expenses. “What
I perceived as harassment and punishment would have truly destroyed me had it
not been for the Merritt Fund,” Shafer said. “It is still hard to describe the
emotional suffering of those months.”

In 2011, Karla moved to Omaha and accepted a part-time
library position. “It is very evident there comes a time for many of us when we
need others – even strangers – to say ‘Here, I’ll help you. That could have
been me!”

Since 1971 The Merritt
Fund is devoted to the support, maintenance, medical care, and welfare of
librarians who have been

·denied
employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of gender, sexual
orientation, race, color, creed, age, disability, or place of national origin;

·denied
employment rights because of defense of intellectual freedom; that is,
threatened with loss of employment or discharged because of their stand for the
cause of intellectual freedom, including promotion of freedom of the press,
freedom of speech, and the freedom of librarians to select items for their
collections from all the world’s written and recorded information.

The Merritt Fund cannot
provide this assistance without the help of supporters like you. Please join us
in supporting our colleagues by making a donation to the Merritt Fund. Visit
the Merritt Fund donation page to make your donation today at www.merittfund.org